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186 sphere of observation are incorrect?" What a first encounter was this, which straightway threw down a problem to be solved, and dubbed him for the first time philosopher!

Baruch lowered his eyes to avoid her scrutiny of his features; he bowed mutely, and knew not what to reply.

"You will find my daughter a half-fledged philosopher, with whom you can dispute as much as you like," said the physician to help Baruch out of the difficulty which he, however, was hardly conscious of.

"Oldenburg has sent me such an exquisite song to-day," said Olympia to her father as she passed him the sheets of music and turned again to Baruch. "Are you musical, Herr von Spinoza?"

"No."

"But you can sing psalms? You must sing me a Hebrew psalm some day, I want to hear how it sounds. Have they still the melodies of King David?"

"We have much older ones; for nearly all our synagogue chants traditionally come from Mount Sinai, though the words were composed much later; the melodies were meanwhile passed on from mouth to mouth."

"That is interesting; it is just as if clothes walked without bodies, or an arsenal fought a battle without soldiers."